


Retrograde Motion

by SevenEyes



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Light Angst, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 16:16:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17410136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SevenEyes/pseuds/SevenEyes
Summary: A much older Ruby Rose discovers that victory over Salem wasn't worth the cost. Naturally, she immediately sets out to fix things, leading to Faustian bargains, time travel, and a whole bunch of regret all around.





	Retrograde Motion

**Author's Note:**

> This is a RWBY time-travel story with AU elements. I own nothing, because RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth. There is no formal update schedule here.

Ruby Rose had successfully saved the world, sort of.

Through some form of silver-eyed bullshit powers and/or spooky magic, Salem was really, truly, finally dead. The Grimm had all scattered, dazed and disorganized. Mistral, Vale, Vacuo and Atlas were genuinely at peace, at least for now. 

Yes, the good guys won, the bad guys lost, and our intrepid heroine lived happily ever after. Ruby could relax, retire, and spend the rest of her days eating far too many cookies and reminiscing with her friends. 

Or rather, Ruby _could_ have done that… if she had any friends left alive.

Victory had a cost, you see. It usually does, but this time around the price was especially steep. If you include the silver-eyed reaper herself, thirty-eight Huntsmen and Huntresses had answered the call to battle. Thirty-eight heroes stormed Salem’s dark, twisted castle, and fought a brutal battle against the forces of evil.

Only Ruby Rose survived.

Yang. Blake. Coco. Velvet. Jaune. Ren. Nora. Oscar. Taiyang. Sun. Neptune. Weiss. Oh, god, _Weiss._ An endlessly-looping litany of names paraded through Ruby’s head every second of every day. Sleep was no escape for the miserable young woman, because the faces of the dead perpetually haunted her dreams. Alcohol didn’t help. In fact, getting drunk just reminded her of Qrow, who had died right outside Salem’s throne room.

All of this grief is what inevitably brought Ruby Rose to me.

You see, I grant wishes. Needless to say, this requires power. A whole fucking lot of power, honestly. You want to talk about magic? I make Ozma (or Ozpin, or Oscar, or whatever the fuck he calls himself these days) look like a two-bit conjurer. Wherever he is right now, Oz-something would probably judge me something fierce for my standard business practices. Meh. I’m over it.

As it turns out, “evil” is just a word. 

Anyway, that brings us to right now, where I’m two-thirds of the way through my standard wish-granting speech. The words are so familiar that my mouth just runs on autopilot. 

“…back in time. The process isn’t free, though. In return, Ruby, you…”

“I’ll do it.”

What the actual fuck?! She interrupted me! No one has ever done that before. Damn, this girl has some massive brass balls. Does she know how many different ways I could kill her right now? Oh, and as a direct result of her rude interjection, I never finished telling her the deal. After sputtering for a second, I find my voice again.

“Wait, you can’t just… I haven’t even told you the terms yet! Are you completely insane?! Also, hasn’t anyone ever told you that it’s rude to interrupt your elders?”

I mean, I am over ten thousand years old, you know. Ruby ought to respect that. Damn, kids these days have no manners at all. I blame the insidious rise of rock music for eroding the modern social tapestry, or some shit like that. Basically, they should get off my lawn with their damn skateboard, and scrolls, and new-fangled weapons. Good riddance. 

Then I look at Ruby; I mean, really, take a deep, searching look at her, and I realize that this girl is _beyond desperate._ In her horribly-warped thinking, she’s lost literally everyone she ever loved, and the chance to save them is automatically worth the cost. No matter what that cost might be. If I asked her to cut her cute little throat and drown in her own blood, she'd do it faster than you can say 'sniper-scythe.' 

See, now I’m actually a bit angry. Doesn’t this naive girl know that you should always, _always_ read the fine print before signing soul-altering contracts? Accepting bargains without knowing what they entail frequently leads to a sudden and messy death, and that’s if you’re lucky. If you’re unlucky, well… 

Ruby decides to play along. Her voice is still chillingly, terminally, hopelessly devoid of any emotion. 

“Okay, fine. What’s the price?”

I tell her. It takes me less than sixty seconds to explain the cost.

Ruby listens politely, as if I’m reading her tomorrow’s weather forecast. Then, in the same flat, lifeless tone, she gives me her answer. 

“Sure, no problem. I agree.”

This girl needs some therapy. Scratch that; this girl needs _all the therapy._

I start casting the time-hopping spell immediately. 

***

Time is only linear if you’re a squishy little mortal. For more… enlightened beings, such as my handsome, charming, and humble self, it’s different. If the past, present, and future are a series of slides, normal people are forced to view them in the order they’re presented, no exceptions. I have no such limitations.

Still, for the sake of our mortal readers, here’s what happens “next,” in your sense of the word: Ruby gets catapulted back to the past. In accordance with our deal, her consciousness lands in the body of her younger self at precisely the moment she selected. In Ruby’s particular case, this happens to be roughly a week before the start of the Vytal Festival and accompanying tournament. I fully expect her to start plotting an epic killing spree, and I am not disappointed. 

I know how this will end, of course. But let’s pretend that I don’t, and sit back and enjoy the fireworks.


End file.
